I entitled the modest proposal blog posts based on the fact that we wanted to spend a modest amount of money in exchange for modest savings. As the years have passed, I shared the monetary results. If I wanted to be really accurate, I could have expressed the energy reduction in terms of units of energy (e.g., kilowatt hours) instead of dollars. I mention this because by signing up for Alameda Green, Sheryl and I volunteered to pay more for our energy in exchange for not polluting the planet. Had we not done that, our dollar savings reflected in the calculations that follow would have actually greater than what is shown; however, for the sake of simplicity, I am just using the dollar amounts.

Here is what we spent in 2009:

Item

Cost

Building envelope sealing

$1,409

Attic insulation

$1,249

Building Permit Processing

$250

BPI Safety Compliance Test

$499

Duct replacement and airflow balancing

$1,550

Return duct sealing

$473

Total

$5,430

Here are the incentives we took advantage of:

From Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), we received a rebate of $1,216.

With the help of Advanced Home Energy who performed the work, we also filed a rebate request with the Alameda Municipal Power Company. We received a check for $2,300 from Association of Bay Area Governments.

In addition, as part of filing 2011 taxes, taxpayers could get a credit by completing Form 5695 — the Residential Energy Credit Form. The Federal Tax program limited the credit to $500 per residence, and since we had already received $450 for the installation of our tankless hot water heater in 2009, we got a $50 credit that time.

In June 2012, we received another rebate from PG&E for $201.

In July 2012, we received another rebate from Alameda Power for $82.

When I combine our expenses with our incentives, I get:

Item

Cost / Savings

Out of pocket

$5,430

1st PG&E rebate

-$1,216

Federal Residential Energy Credit

-$50

1st Alameda Power Rebate

-$2,300

2nd PG&E rebate

-$201

2nd Alameda Power Rebate

-$82

final total

$1,581

Our condo is 1,977 square feet. We have been watching our electric and gas costs since we first moved in, particularly since the work was completed in April 2011.

Various factors affect our results like: average daily temperature, price increases from year to year (particularly for the green energy), how much company we have, how long our showers are, or whether or not my wife straightens her hair with a hot iron. :-) Even given all that, we have seen reasonable savings and have now come out ahead.

Year

Electrical Savings

Gas Savings

Total Savings

2011

$184

$2

$186

2012

$270

$171

$441

2013

$127

$138

$265

2014

$200

$239

$439

2015

$243

$224

$467

To Date

$1,024

$773

$1,797

Given our $1,581 out-of-pocket expenses, we recouped our investment last year by accumulating $1,797 of savings and are actually $216 ahead. So given our willingness to pay for green energy, the whole process took a total of 5 years.

If you look at our minimum and maximum payments, you can see what the best case scenario would look like for the years to come.

As I noted in my original blog post, we undertook this project, not for the money, but because we felt our house was broken. When you borrow money to pay $646,000 for a townhouse, another $1,581 to make it right doesn't seem all that wrong. From now on out, it's all additional savings of at least $450 per year, so it makes sense from both an environmental and financial standpoint.

August 21, 2015

One of the things we're passionate about at Autodesk is sustainability. For many employees, this impacts our work lives as well as our personal lives. For example, that's one of the reasons my wife and I made improvements to our home to lower our energy costs.

It's also the reason we signed up for Alameda Green. The Alameda Green program allows us to pay a little extra but get all off of our electricity from Alameda Municipal Power via renewable sources of wind and solar.

So it was with this spirit that I was excited when my neighbor, famous patent attorney, Don Gibson, altered me to a new service from Google called Project Sunroof.

Project Sunroof allows you to enter your home address and using Google Map data, the service lets you know:

number of hours of usable sunlight per year for your address

square feet available for solar panels based on your roof size

estimate of the amount of savings over a 20-year lease

links to available solar system providers in your area

Cool - right? Given that I have been tracking my energy bills as part of our modest proposal to reduce our energy costs, I thought I would try the service myself. Here is what I got.

So Project Sunroof estimates that my wife and i can save $5,000 in the next 20 years.

For our home improvement project, our before (red) and after (green) electricity costs look like:

From this, using the green line, we see that we spend about $55.60 per month on electricity. A solar system that would provide 99% of our energy would cost us about $10,000 after rebates and incentives.

Even if the cost of electricity rose 5.5% every year (which is what PG&E estimates) for the next 20 years, it would take us until 2027 to recoup our initial out of pocket costs. In our opinion, that's too long.

So for us, solar is not really an option. From a cost perspective, we don't use enough electricity. From a moral perspective, we're already signed up for Alameda Green. Despite this, I encourage you to try the service, which is as easy as entering your address, and conduct your own evaluation.

I used Project Sunroof in my personal life. In my professional life, Autodesk has its Solar Analysis for Revit technology preview on Autodesk Labs. Revit is our tool for Building Information Modeling where everyone on a project collaborates using a big database for constructing buildings.

This technology preview lets professionals visualize and quantify the distribution of solar radiation on various areas of a mass by taking into account the shading effects from adjacent objects, such as vegetation and surrounding buildings in an urban setting. It also helps with shading device design (effective strategies in blocking unwanted solar radiation) and aperture placement (allowing wanted solar radiation).

The other day I logged into the Pacific Gas & Electric site to check my bill. I saw they had a way to visualize my usage:

It nice to see that we are doing OK even in terms of other sustainable homes. This shows usage instead of dollars so is independent of rate increases. This year we should save enough to finally exceed what we've spent out of pocket. Though not on this chart, I recently paid my June bill, and the total was $6.61.

I entitled the modest proposal blog posts based on the fact that we wanted to spend a modest amount of money in exchange for modest savings. Now that years have passed, I can share more of the monetary results. If I wanted to be really accurate, I could have expressed the energy reduction in terms of units of energy (e.g., kilowatt hours) instead of dollars. I mention this because by signing up for Alameda Green, Sheryl and I volunteered to pay more for our energy in exchange for not polluting the planet. Had we not done that, our dollar savings reflected in the calculations that follow would have actually greater than what is shown; however, for the sake of simplicity, I am just using the dollar amounts.

Here is what we spent in 2009:

Item

Cost

Building envelope sealing

$1,409

Attic insulation

$1,249

Building Permit Processing

$250

BPI Safety Compliance Test

$499

Duct replacement and airflow balancing

$1,550

Return duct sealing

$473

Total

$5,430

Here are the incentives we took advantage of:

From Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), we received a rebate of $1,216.

With the help of Advanced Home Energy who performed the work, we also filed a rebate request with the Alameda Municipal Power Company. We received a check for $2,300 from Association of Bay Area Governments.

In addition, as part of filing 2011 taxes, taxpayers could get a credit by completing Form 5695 — the Residential Energy Credit Form. The Federal Tax program limited the credit to $500 per residence, and since we had already received $450 for the installation of our tankless hot water heater in 2009, we got a $50 credit that time.

In June 2012, we received another rebate from PG&E for $201.

In July 2012, we received another rebate from Alameda Power for $82.

When I combine our expenses with our incentives, I get:

Item

Cost / Savings

Out of pocket

$5,430

1st PG&E rebate

-$1,216

Federal Residential Energy Credit

-$50

1st Alameda Power Rebate

-$2,300

2nd PG&E rebate

-$201

2nd Alameda Power Rebate

-$82

final total

$1,581

Our condo is 1,977 square feet. We have been watching our electric and gas costs since we first moved in, particularly since the work was completed in April 2011.

Various factors affect our results like: average daily temperature, price increases from year to year (particularly for the green energy), how much company we have, how long our showers are, or whether or not my wife straightens her hair with a hot iron. :-) Even given all that, we have seen reasonable savings.

Year

Electrical Savings

Gas Savings

Total Savings

2011

$184

$2

$186

2012

$270

$171

$441

2013

$127

$138

$265

2014

$200

$239

$439

To Date

$781

$550

$1,331

At this rate, given our $1,581 expenses, we will recoup our investment this year. So given our willingness to pay for green energy, the whole process will take a total of 5 years.

If you look at our minimum and maximum payments, you can see what the best case scenario would look like for future years after that.

As I noted in my original blog post, we undertook this project, not for the money, but because we felt our house was broken. When you borrow money to pay $646,000 for a townhouse, another $1,581 to make it right doesn't seem all that wrong.

I entitled the modest proposal blog posts based on the fact that we wanted to spend a modest amount of money in exchange for modest savings. Now that years have passed, I can share more of the monetary results. If I wanted to be really accurate, I could have expressed the energy reduction in terms of units of energy (e.g., kilowatt hours) instead of dollars. I mention this because by signing up for Alameda Green, Sheryl and I volunteered to pay more for our energy in exchange for not polluting the planet. Had we not done that, our dollar savings reflected in the calculations that follow would have actually greater than what is shown; however, for the sake of simplicity, I am just using the dollar amounts.

Here is what we spent in 2009:

Item

Cost

Building envelope sealing

$1,409

Attic insulation

$1,249

Building Permit Processing

$250

BPI Safety Compliance Test

$499

Duct replacement and airflow balancing

$1,550

Return duct sealing

$473

Total

$5,430

From Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), we received a rebate of $1,216. With the help of Advanced Home Energy who performed the work, we also filed a rebate request with the Alameda Power Company. We received a check for $2,300 from Association of Bay Area Governments. In addition, as part of filing 2011 taxes, taxpayers could get a credit by completing Form 5695 — the Residential Energy Credit Form. The Federal Tax program limited the credit to $500 per residence, and since we had already received $450 for the installation of our tankless hot water heater in 2009, we got a $50 credit that time. In June 2012, we received another rebate from PG&E for $201. In July 2012, we received another rebate from Alameda Power for $82.

Item

Cost / Savings

Out of pocket

$5,430

1st PG&E rebate

-$1,216

Residential Energy Credit

-$50

Alameda Power Rebate

-$2,300

2nd PG&E rebate

-$201

2nd Alameda Power Rebate

-$82

final total

$1,581

Our condo is 1,977 square feet. We have been watching our electric and gas costs since the work was completed in April 2011.

Various factors affect our results like: average daily temperature, price increases from year to year (particularly for the green energy), how much company we have, how long our showers are, or whether or not my wife straightens her hair with a hot iron. :-) Even given all that, we have seen reasonable savings. Looking at the year 2011 as a whole, we saved $186. For 2012 as a whole, we saved $441. For the just completed 2013, the savings were $265. At this rate, given our $1,581 expenses, we will recoup our investment in about 3 more years. So given our willingness to pay for green energy, it will take a total of 6 years.

If you look at our minimum and maximum payments, you can see what a best case scenario would look like.

As I noted in my original blog post, we undertook this project not for the money, but because we felt our house was broken. When you borrow money to pay $646,000 for a condo, another $1,581 to make it right doesn't seem all that wrong.

March 25, 2013

I live in Alameda, California. Our electricity is supplied by Alameda Municipal Power (AMP) — a department of the City of Alameda. AMP has a great program called Alameda Green. Here is their description of it.

If you live in Alameda or have a business here, you can sign up for AMP's voluntary renewable power program, Alameda Green. Join your friends and neighbors by choosing 100% renewable energy sources from newly constructed wind and solar facilities located within California and western states.

Your participation in Alameda Green makes the air cleaner by avoiding greenhouse gas emissions. It also supports the growth of renewable energy facilities and clean tech jobs. To ensure your enrollment contributes to this growth, AMP purchases Green-e Energy certified renewable energy exclusively from new wind and solar projects built within the last 15 years.

Alameda Green's supply is 20% California solar and 80% western wind.

The average Alameda household reduces its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 5,990 pounds a year by participating in Alameda Green for an extra $6 per month (rate varies depending on monthly usage).

That's the CO2 equivalent to taking your car off the road for 6 months. Larger businesses can also participate in increments of $15 per month for each 1,000 kWh block.

Enrollment is simple, voluntary, and you may cancel at any time. Just call 510-748-3900 or email green@alamedamp.com. More information is available on the AMP website.

Recently I signed up for this program and proudly received my first bill:

This is a small price to pay to help consume energy in a more sustainable way.

January 25, 2013

Recently I updated this posting to include data from our 2012 electric and gas bills. I am happy to report we saved $441 last year. At this rate, our home improvements will have paid for themselves two years from now.

I entitled these blog posts based on the fact that we wanted to spend a modest amount of money in exchange for modest savings. Now that some time has passed, I can share some of the monetary aspects.

Here is what we spent:

Item

Cost

Building envelope sealing

$1,409

Attic insulation

$1,249

Building Permit Processing

$250

BPI Safety Compliance Test

$499

Duct replacement and airflow balancing

$1,550

Return duct sealing

$473

Total

$5,430

From Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), we received a rebate of $1,216. With the help of Advanced Home Energy who performed the work, we also filed a rebate request with the Alameda Power Company. We received a check for $2,300 from Association of Bay Area Governments. In addition, as part of filing 2011 taxes, taxpayers can get a credit by completing Form 5695 - the Residential Energy Credit Form. The Federal Tax program limits the credit to $500 per residence, and since we had already received $450 for the installation of our tankless hot water heater in 2009, we got a $50 credit this time. In June 2012, we received another rebate from PG&E for $201. In Juky 2012, we received another rebate from Alameda Power for $82.

Item

Cost

Out of pocket

$5,430

1st PG&E rebate

-$1,216

Residential Energy Credit

-$50

Alameda Power Rebate

-$2,300

2nd PG&E rebate

-$201

2nd Alameda Power Rebate

-$82

final total

$1,581

Our condo is 1,977 square feet. We have been watching our electric and gas costs since the work was completed in April 2011.

Various factors affect our results like: average daily temperature, price increases from year to year, how much company we have, how long our showers are, or whether or not my wife straightens her hair with a hot iron. :-) Even given all that, we have seen modest savings. Looking at the year 2011 as a whole, we saved $186. For 2012 as a whole, we saved $441. At this rate, given our $1,581 expenses, we will recoup our investment in about 4 years. Actually as the price of energy is likely to increase in the future, the amount of time will probably be less. If you look at our minimum and maximum payments, you can see what a best case scenario would look like.

As I noted at the onset, we undertook this project not for the money, but because we felt our house was broken. When you borrow money to pay $646,000 for a condo, another $1,581 to make it right doesn't seem all that wrong.

May 09, 2011

We are now the proud owners of two carbon monoxide detectors. One downstairs:

and another upstairs:

Unlike smoke detectors, these sensors go on the wall instead of the ceiling. The downstairs one is supposed to be head-height while standing, so placing it next to the thermostat is about right. The upstairs one is supposed to be head-height while sleeping, so placing it by a light switch is a little high, but not too high. You can see the door in the background to get a sense of where the detector was installed.

The team from Advanced Home Energy (AHE) (blog article) installed Kidde Model KN-COB-B units. Kidde also makes a KN-COPP-B unit that has a digital display, but that was not necessary for my situation. The audible alarm that will go off in the event our gas furnace, tankless hot water heater, or fireplace accidentally vents back into the house will be sufficient. The cost was included in my AHE home improvement project, but a search of the web shows that these units cost between $18 and $44 dollars depending where you buy them. California building codes now require these detectors on each floor.

April 20, 2011

In a previous blog posting I covered my home energy audit and how Recurve worked with me to create a plan to remedy problems at a modest cost. Since then Recurve has joined forces with Advanced Home Energy (AHE) located in Richmond, California. They had worked with Advanced Home Energy over the last five years, and the change allowed their construction operations to continue upgrading Bay Area homes, while allowing Recurve to focus on delivering energy auditing software to contractors throughout California and across the country.

Seal electrical and plumbing penetrations in attic and crawlspace to reduce leakage by using materials such as foam board, expanding foam, caulk, and fire rated material.

The fireplace pipes were a large source of leakage.

Even small wiring holes in the closet ceiling (from the previous homeowner) were sealed with foam. In all rooms, it's nice to be able to put your hand next to a light switch or wall outlet and not feel cold air pouring out.

Seal existing return air pathway with sheet metal and duct mastic to prevent return air leakage to increase heating system efficiency because the system will not be bringing in cold air from outside.

Not only was the intake sealed properly, but the duct from the heater to the attic is shiny, new, and air-tight.

Safely remove and dispose of all duct including sections that have asbestos tape.

Day 2

Install new duct and seal all duct connections with water based, low VOC mastic. Install air flow dampers on all duct runs in attic to meet design air flow specifications and to guide more air to the master bedroom.

All of the duct work in the attic was replaced.

Day 3

Insulate attic kneewalls where insulation is missing, install blown in cellulose insulation R-30 throughout attic over top of fiberglass batts, and install insulation wind damns on eave vents to maintain installation quality and performance over time.

Insulation was blown in - it looks like a snow drift up there. The insulation is made of recycled Levi blue jeans.

Readings were taken at the beginning, during, and at the end of the process. The goal is NOT to make the home air tight. A home should have about 30% leakage. In other words, 30% of the air should be fresh air that normally enters around the windows. Before the work was done, our home was getting 75% new air.

Day 4

City of Alameda inspection in compliance with the Building Permit.

AHE will file my rebate request with PG&E on my behalf. When I receive the check in the mail, it will bring this project to its conclusion, but the benefits will be enjoyed for as long as our house still stands. It will be fun to compare this year's energy bills with past years on a month by month basis.

February 18, 2011

As mentioned in an earlier blog posting about how homes typically waste more energy than cars, I signed up with Recurve to have them conduct an energy audit of the condo my wife and I own. Though the homeowner association owns the structure and property, we are responsible for the inside as well as items like windows and heating systems. So although we can't tear down exterior walls without homeowner association approval, there are steps we can take to lower our energy bills and have a more sustainable home.

There are basically 8 short steps to the Recurve process.

You tell Recurve what your goals are in terms of energy consumption.

You provide Recurve with your gas and electricity bills for the past year.

Recurve comes to your home and takes detailed measurements.

Recurve prepares an energy audit report with recommendations based on the measurements and your goals.

Recurve meets with you to discuss the report and recommendations. You can also schedule any work you would like performed.

The work is performed.

Recurve comes to your home and retakes the measurements to demonstrate the resulting improvement and files rebate paperwork with the electricity and gas companies.

The gas and/or electric companies mail you your rebate.

For our particular situation:

Goals

Our master bedroom is a little bit colder than other parts of the house. We used to live in Arizona where our electricity bills were very high due to air conditioning. As northern California has a more moderate climate, our energy bills are a fraction of the Arizona cost. So our goals are to spend a modest amount of money to try to do the right thing for the environment rather than to save loads of money.

Bills

Using the web, I was able to download or create CSV files for our Alameda Power and PG&E bills. Recurve was able to use this data as a baseline to estimate how much money we could save with various improvements.

Measurements

In addition to measuring room dimensions and other physical characteristics, Recurve conducted a fan test at our service entry door to measure how much air was leaking from our house.

Recurve was able to determine:

Although windows account for a substantial amount of the loss, replacing them cannot be accomplished at a modest price. Knowing our goals, Recurve did not recommend new windows.

Scheduling Work

We opted to have the following done.

Get a Building Permit.

Seal electrical and plumbing penetrations in attic and crawlspace to reduce leakage by using materials such as foam board, expanding foam, caulk, and fire rated material.

Insulate attic kneewalls where insulation is missing, install blown in cellulose insulation R-30 throughout attic over top of fiberglass batts, and install insulation wind damns on eave vents to maintain installation quality and performance over time.

Safely remove, dispose of, and replace sections of duct that have asbestos tape. Seal all duct connections with water based, low VOC mastic. Install air flow dampers on all duct runs in attic to meet design air flow specifications and to guide more air to the master bedroom.

Seal existing return air pathway with sheet metal and duct mastic to prevent return air leakage to increase heating system efficiency because the system will not be bringing in cold air from outside.

January 21, 2011

As part of our San Francisco Green Team, Executive Assistant, Bobbie Casey, set up a presentation entitled Re-Energize your home. On Wednesday several employees headed over to a conference room in the Autodesk Gallery to hear about saving energy in our own homes. Many of you may recall my Sustainable Design Center post where I mentioned that most of the world's energy is consumed by buildings, not cars, so it made sense to us to check this presentation out.

Marc St Raymond of Recurve Corporation and Sandra Kwak of eco-shift Consulting explained a process where a home can undergo an energy audit. The interesting fact is that some of the most effective improvements are not always the most expensive, and sometimes expensive improvements don't provide optimal benefit without accompanying smaller ones. It's important to consider the home as a whole in terms of energy consumption.

Borrowing a slide from Marc's presentation, some common sense tips I learned from the presentation included:

Use Power Strips to connect more than one appliance to a power controller (e.g. SmartHome, Powerzoa)Remotes save time, and safe plugs protect DVR recordings

Turn Water Heater DownTurn water heater temperature down

AppliancesFridge over 10 years old?

At the end of the presentation, I signed up to have an energy audit for our townhome in Alameda. The cost is $295 which can easily be recouped by pinpointing where to apply the common sense tips.

The key is take what is learned from the audit and get a road map in place.

It is important to get the fundamentals sound first, then consider major systems, and then possibly renewables. Consumers often jump straight to renewables and much of their savings are lost due to inefficiencies in the fundamentals. For more information, visit the Recurve site.

December 07, 2009

As part of our townhouse remodel, we had a tankless hot water heater installed. Its predecessor was a gas hot water heater whose life expectancy was 15 years. Ours was 20 years old. So rather than awake one morning to the prospect of a cold shower, we preemptively had a new hot water heater installed.

As a company Autodesk is doing everything it can in terms of sustainable design. The Sustainable Materials Assistant for Autodesk Inventor is available as a technology preview on the Autodesk Labs site. The Autodesk corporate web site has a full section on sustainable design. So it made sense to us to select a tankless hot water heater. The premise behind tankless hot water heaters is that energy is saved by heating the water as needed rather than heating and maintaining hot water at the ready.

The first piece of the puzzle is a new gas line. To heat water quickly and as it flows requires a dedicated line. Our new line is 0.75 inches in diameter.

Our unit is a Noritz N-0751M-DVC. It is an indoor wall-mounted unit that vents to the outside. It has no pilot light using a direct ignition mechanism instead. It operates at 15 to 150 psi. The water holding capacity is only 0.2 gallons. It can increase the water temperature up to 45 degrees with a flow of 7.5 gallons per minute.

The initial factory temperature setting is 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Out of the box, the controls allow you to set a desired temperature between 100 and 120 degrees. At 110, we found that our water was not hot enough and took quite a while to reach a usable temperature. So we tried 120 degrees. That still seemed to take longer than desired. The Noritz unit has override controls that let the owner increase the upper limit to 140 degrees. After setting the override, we have our temperature set at 125 degrees. We do not have young children and the accompanying worry that they might inadvertently scald themselves. With our son at boot camp, we are what they call empty nesters.

Despite having the setting at 125 degrees, it still takes quite a while [1 minute, 11 seconds at full blast or about 3 minutes on normal flow] for hot water to reach our master bathroom faucets. I have resorted to brushing my teeth with the water running, a wasting water no-no taught to us as children, so that I have hot water for shaving by the time I am done with my teeth. Apparently the tankless water heater trades off increased water consumption for lower energy costs. This is a viable strategy until the day comes when the cost of clean water (a scarce commodity) outstrips the cost of energy (e.g. solar). Recall that we installed a solar hot water heater in our first house in 1982. So given the long term prospects, I cannot recommend tankless hot water heaters at this time. Water is predicted to eventually be so scarce that its discovery on the moon is now being celebrated. We could supplement our household unit with a smaller on-demand unit specifically located at the sink where I shave, but that may come at a later day.

Sharing first-hand experiences with sustainable technology is alive in the lab.